Tiling All Night Long

We have been making great progress on the church building. The outside has been painted, the dormitories are finished, the lights installed, front door built, and now the floor tile is going down. However, we hit a snag on Friday afternoon, and about 40 tiles had to be removed. This setback cost us about a day. With the building dedication looming just one day away, Dennis and 4 others stayed up all night Friday night and completed the first floor tiling. Just part of the Extreme Adventure!!

Dawn Get to Stay an Extra Week

It was Sunday afternoon, and we are getting ready to take Dawn to the bus station for her trip back to Lima, when she received a text message from the Pastor she is teaching. He told her she should stay in Arequipa another week. He would be coming to Arequipa on Saturday to dedicate the building anyhow, so she should just stay. Yahoooo!! Dawn was really wanting to stay but was afraid to ask. We raced to the bus station to change her ticket to the next Sunday. On the way back home, she was talking with the taxi driver and got to share why she is a Christian and invited him to church. Was this all part of God’s plan? It was fun to have Dawn helping with the impact events. She was asked to lead several of the events for Extreme and was a great help in reaching out to people here in Arequipa.

Group of 80 Arrive for AQP 1

On a bright sunny Friday afternoon, 80 willing and ready volunteers arrived to do construction and impacts here in Arequipa. For the next 12 days, half of them will help work on the Larry and Addie Garmin Missionary Training Center, 40/40 housing, and Zamacola church, while the other half will visit hospitals, a women’s prison, children’s home, show Jesus Films, and pray with people in the Plaza de Armas. What an exciting week.

Dawn Comes to Visit

After a 15 hour bus ride from Lima, Dawn arrived back in Arequipa on August 4th for a short visit with the parents. It was great to get to see her and hear all about what she has been doing in and around Lima. Her English teaching is going well, and the family she is teaching loves her. She enjoyed being here where she knows the city and the streets. She met some friends and went on a rafting trip. She will be in town for the first few days of our next project, where 80 short term volunteers will work for 12 days.

The first team in Arequipa

Our first group of short term volunteers arrived in Arequipa on July 17 and were here for about 12 days, and much was accomplished. Dennis had a construction team of about 14 people who painted, carpeted, pulled electrical wiring, hung lights, and built tables for the new missionary training center, dormitory rooms, and worship center. The Peruvian workers continued with the stucco and plumbing work on the second floor of the worship center. The teams got to eat lunch together and had a good time getting to know each other.















Denise got to get out of the office during the project. She helped a few days at the constrution site keeping me organized. She also got to go out on a community impact project in a new church plant area called Rimero Priale. The team walked around the community with Rico to draw the kids to the arena. They they did face painting, played games, performed puppet skits, and presented the salvation message. Close to 50 children came forward to pray and accept Jesus.







Overall for the 12 days, over 175 children and adults became new Christians and the local churches are beginning to follow up and disciple these new believers. What a great start on our short term projects.

General Assembly

After we left Alaska, we traveled to Orlando Florida for General Assembly. Dennis was an NYI Delegate and Denise was a General Church Delegate. It is great to be part of a global church. In the NYI Convention, they web-cast the convention to 7 different world areas and included delegates in the convention and voting who could not travel to Orlando either becasue of finaces or visa/passport problems. This is the first time their voices could be heard. In the General Convention, they elected a new General Superintendent for Africa, the first from outside the US.

We also worked at the Extreme Mobile, the exhibit booth for Extreme Peru. It is an 18-wheeler trailer that is divided into 3 bays with videos that tell about Peru and the work we are doing there. Dennis decided to use his mascoting skills and put on the RICO cuy outfit and strolled around the convention center meeting people and having fun with the kids. He had a blast.

Our Visit to Alaska

Denise and I got to got to Alaska the week of June 14-21. We had a great time visiting our friends and many supporters while we were there.

The week started with a small miracle from God. The night before we left, we found out that our flights had been changed and we were to arrive in Anchorage late Sunday night and would miss the evening service at Chapel of the Cross that we were supposed to speak at. We prayed and the next day, the airline was able to re-route us to arrive on time for church and they didn't even charge us a change fee. PTL.

We spent the next couple of days working and visiting our friends at HDL, taking care of loose ends, and getting our taxes filed. On Wednesday and Thursday, Dennis, Denise, our good friend Bill Tuk, and DJ, invaded the lake house and installed tongue and groove pine on the ceiling. Kimmy and Chad have done a great job turning the lakehouse into a home. It is looking great.

They we went down to Soldotna to spend time with our parents. We stayed with Dennis and Jodie Linnell where we helped install a new window in the living room. We also got to visit with Peter and JoAnn Biegel on the beach as they were doing their annual subsistence set netting for red salmon. In three days, er caught, cleaned, and filleted over 100 fish. Dennis left feeling like a real Alaskan.

We really enjoyed our time celebrating Father's Day with our families, many brothers and sisters, and kids.